The Los Angeles Lakers were a hot destination in free agency. Over the summer, multiple players flocked to the team to chase a title alongside LeBron James in the NBA’s biggest market.
But since the start of the season, things have been less than ideal for the Lakeshow. Through the first half of the season, it has become clear that James and the coaching staff have essentially given up on their bigs, with Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan reduced to playing very minor roles with the team.
For Dwight in particular, his new reality in Laker land is especially heartbreaking given what he was able to do for them back in 2020.
As conversations rage about the state of the Lakers, former player Kwame Brown recently spoke up about the team, going off on James for failing to lead the team and wasting the talent that Dwight brings to the floor.
“You’re not gonna win coming off screens shotting threes all day long. It ain’t working yet. I know if I was a big man on that team I would just run up and down, foul, and get the hell up out of there. Because they know they’re not wanted. They know y’all not using them the right way. If I could be a fly on that wall in that locker room I know them people sitting around like ‘this is some bullsh*t.’
Dwight Howard, poor Dwight Howard. He come off the bench cold as I don’t know what. Dude been rolling, getting layups all day and then you expect a 30-plus-year-old man to come off the bench after sitting that long ready to go and play some defense.Yeah good luck with that.”
It’s no accident that Dwight is putting up career-low marks across the board. Through 32 games this season, he’s only averaging 5.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in 14.7 minutes.
All the while, they’ve got LeBron James playing the five, apparently to hold the fort until Anthony Davis returns.
Whatever the case, the Dwight Howard/Lakers reunion hasn’t panned out like originally hoped and it remains to be seen if things will get better before the end of the season.
